Foreign Affairs state minister Henry Okello Oryem, says that Ugandans should be happy that influential blogger Fred Lumbuye has been arrested in Turkey.
Speaking to reporters at the government-owned Uganda Media Centre in Kampala, Oryem said although he couldn't confirm whether Lumbuye had been arrested, it should be known to everybody that nobody is above the law. According to Lumbuye's associates, he was arrested at the Ugandan Embassy in Istanbul where he had gone to renew his passport.
"I heard that he has been arrested for breaking the law then he deserves to be arrested because he committed a crime. Anybody who commits a crime in any country whatsoever will pay the price for committing or breaking the law including in Uganda. That person they are talking about is not a special person, who is he to think that he can be above the law? The law is very clear in all countries, you break the law, you pay the penalties. If he broke the law, let him pay the price and I would have thought that every single one of you would be jubilating, celebrating that this person committed a crime, he has been arrested and been brought before the courts of law but now it seems you're sympathising with him," said Oryem.
Lumbuye has for a long time been a thorn in the shoes of many government officials. On his popular social media pages especially Facebook, Lumbuye is fond of making wild allegations against the government.
In July this year, he was a source of a rumour that dominated social media that President Museveni was very ill and admitted to a hospital in Germany. And the following days, he took his salacious allegations to even another level when he announced that Museveni had actually died from the same hospital.
Speaking a few days later, Museveni said the country has got another challenge of social media that it must deal with urgently.
He ordered security agencies to hunt down anybody who is trading rumours that he was dead and for those outside the country, their citizenship should be revoked. He also previously falsely announced the death of Kabaka Muwenda but correctly predicted the shooting of Works minister Gen Katumba Wamala, who narrowly survived but lost his daughter and driver in the Kisasi assassination attempt on June 1.
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